I’ve had two abortions. My first was when I was 32 years old – my husband and I had been trying for a baby, and we were thrilled to be pregnant. We found out at 13 weeks that the baby had anencephaly, a condition where the skull doesn’t close completely, and the baby – if born alive – has a partial brain and cannot survive. “Completely incompatible with life,” is what the Dr told me. I aborted this much-wanted baby at 14 weeks. A year later I had my first daughter, another wanted pregnancy, but the birth nearly killed me. Two years later we tried again and I became pregnant, but we learned it was ectopic and therefore a risk to my life. I received injections of methotrexate to terminate the pregnancy; 6 months later I was happy to be pregnant again with my second daughter, which ended up being another complicated pregnancy and birth.
I often think about how the abortions I had would not be allowed under the laws in some states. In both cases the fetus wouldn’t have survived; considering how complicated my two live births were, I cannot imagine if I’d been forced to stay pregnant and then hadn’t survived the delivery.
My abortions were essential healthcare which allowed me to live so that we could keep trying for the children we wanted.
Abortion is healthcare.
